Nulif

Slowly and quietly, Phyra entered the kobel in which her partner and their youngest whelp were resting, a four-eyed ray in her mouth. She had brought it to Sage as a refreshment, as the hob had not been able to leave the den for the past two quarter moons at all, always there to suckle the little, black pup. As she stepped into the dark nest, the cream Mayur turned his head towards her, a big smile across his face and a happy sparkle in his eyes.

«Come, quickly! Look!»

The tabby jill dropped the fish next to the entrance and looked over Sages shoulder, to see Vernin lying in the dry grass and soft moss. He had his little head raised up a bit and blinked into the light with his bright blue eyes.

«He opened them for the first time today.»

Phyra was ecstatic to see them both doing so well and wanted to stay for a while, lying down and putting her head on her partners back to rest for a bit, looking at little Vernin.

«He has your eyes.»

«And your beautiful face.»

Shortly after, Phyra had fallen asleep, exhausted from the hunt but happy to be with her family. Sage let her rest and dozed off a bit as well. The black pup was wide awake though, yet he couldn't realize what that meant just yet. His gaze was still blurry and he could mainly see shapes and colors, rather than actual faces. His hearing also had only began a day ago or two, so what made him feel at home and safe was still the scent of his parents next to him, something he had been able to perceive since his birth. He couldn't really think yet, too young for even a simple thought process, but a feeling flooded through his body. It was a mix of feeling protected and happy, the warmth of his parents next to him, a full belly and a calm, quiet afternoon. It was pure love.

As the sun set behind the trees, Phyra had woken up again finally, but she was still tired and Sage wanted to stretch his legs anyway, so he told her he'd go for a little walk and she grunted in acceptance. Vernin had only recently drunk milk anyway, so he'd be fine with his mother for a while. The healer grabbed the ray his partner had left for him and went outside, climbing down the tree to eat it in the warm and fresh evening breeze.

Chai and Novalee were sitting on a branch on the other side of the clearing, paws under their chests in a comfortable pose, talking in low voice and laughing occasionally. From Kodas kobel he could see the spotted tail of the jade hob hanging down, him obviously being asleep in there. Kali, Soren and Hinami must have still been out patrolling and hunting. When he was done with his meal, he stretched himself extensively and took a little walk to the close by stream to drink. He cowered down to the water after looking from side to side to see if it was safe, especially on his right side, since that was the blind spot for him. The water was cool and refreshing and didn't have that strange aftertaste that the drenched moss clumps had he usually drank from recently.

After his thirst was drenched, he stepped into the slow flowing stream and used the water to clean his fur. A rustling from the bushes on the other side caught his attention, but he could sense it was no threat. The spotted shamrock leader stepped out of the undergrowth and gave a polite nod towards the healer, who mimicked the gesture immediately.

«I see you left the den, is everything alright with Vernin?»

«Oh yes, no problems. Phyra is taking care of him for a moment. He finally opened his eyes!»

«That's great news, I'm glad to hear it.»

The jill seemed distracted and serious, not able to show real joy at that revelation.

«How's the rest of the tribe? Hinami?»

«All's well, no need to worry. The intruder hasn't been sighted in our territory lately, seems she distanced herself since Phyra gave birth, but her scent marks are still close to the border, so she's not gone yet.»

«Maybe we shouldn't try to scare her off but talk to her? What if she needs help?»

Kalis eyes were narrow and her tail twitched angrily.

«That jill is unsettling everyone and is obviously making no move to accept and respect us! It's a direct insult to me, like a spit in my face, to disrespect my rules and leadership and I will not tolerate such behavior!»

«I...I'm sorry Kali, I didn't mean to–»

«No, I know. You didn't mean to doubt my decisions, I know that. It's just...she's making me so mad! We don't know who she is but she's looming around like a storm cloud and won't leave! Especially now with your small whelp we cannot risk a stranger that abides no rules to be running around freely. Who knows what she's gonna do! But we cannot pin her down...»

«It's alright, I'm sure nothing bad will happen. I completely trust you and our clan mates to protect Vernin successfully.»

Kali, who had seemed quite defeated at the end of her outburst, sighed and nodded.

«Thank you. I'm glad you trust my lead. I haven't been alpha for that long yet, so I'm still not sure my actions are right, but I'm doing my best.»

«I know you do.»

They walked back together and found a very tired looking Koda, his mane tousled from a restless sleep, sitting in the center of the clearing. He showed them a halfhearted smile as they walked closer to him.

He was getting ready for his patrolling shift, the hob working almost all day and night, only giving himself a few hours of rest. Usually it wasn't necessary to have more than one guard awake at night, let alone constant patrols throughout the day, but everyone was a bit on edge. Despite his sister telling him he did nothing wrong, Koda felt responsible that the stranger was still around, as he had encountered the slippery jill who kept escaping their grasp all the time, yet he could not stop her.

«I'm about to head out, was everything alright with you two? I was worried you were gone so long.»

«Everything's fine, Koda. You should take it a bit easier.»

«No, only when we finally chased that Mayur away for good.»

He yawned long and got up on his feet slowly.

«Chai has already left, he's gonna patrol as well. Hinami and Soren have returned and gone to sleep. Phyra is fine, I was checking on her earlier. And Novalee will take the guard shift tonight.»

«Why...Koda, you're not deputy, it is not your burden to keep everyone in check, you gotta take care of yourself sometime.»

«It's alright, I'm good.»

Sage looked at Kali with worry in his eyes, but he did not dare get involved in this, be it a quarrel under siblings or a leader and a tribe member.

«Novalee needs rest too, after all she's not the youngest Saliko around here. I can take the shift, no problem. I'll just feed Vernin real quick and come back, I have slept all day anyway.»

«Are you sure? What about Phyra?»

«She's gonna sleep way better when she has more space alone in the kobel. I'll be happy to help out a bit, after all I have done nothing but sleeping lately.»

His laugh was warm and friendly, cheering all the others up a bit.

«Good, then let's do it like this. Thanks Sage.»

Kali purred in relief. It was hard to organize all the shifts lately as most of the tribes members were exhausted from the moons of unease. It was time to bring this all to an end soon.

The next day, the tribe leader had made a decision on what to do and wanted to talk to her deputy about it. She looked into Phyras kobel and saw the well rested jill lying in the middle of the nest, the black whelp crawling over her back and her looking in content at him.

«Do you have a minute?»

«Sure Kali, what's up?»

«I'm gonna go find Octavia and see if she knows anything about this jill. Maybe I'll even find the intruder myself and be able to confront her. I just need to know if you can handle me being gone for a while?»

«Yeah, don't worry, we'll be fine. Koda and I got everything under control. But wouldn't it be better to send someone else on that trip?»

«No, I don't want to force anyone else to go on this journey, it's better to do it myself.»

The tabby shrug her shoulders and the pup slid down to her belly, snuggling under her pelt immediately with a surprised yelp.

«If you say so.»

«And you're sure you'll be fine? I won't leave if you need me here.»

«No Kali, you go. I'll take care of everyone. Sage will stay with Vernin a bit longer and I'll take command of the main patrols. I'm happy to have something to do anyway.»

«Okay. I think it's best if I go right away, using all the remaining daylight to cover some distance. Will you tell everyone?»

«Of course.»

And so the spotted jill left the den and climbed down the tree, heading towards where the Tengu had left to go find Octavia.